Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Quick Hits: Late Night Roundup


Testing expert Fred Smith on mainstream radio with John Gambling. 

He's a much better guest than the regular appearances of Bloomberg.
Fred really gets in his points in a very effective way and Gambling seems suitably impressed.
Read Fred on Schoolbook: NYS Exam Problem Is Worse than reported - "looming debacle" for state and Pearson – Schoolbook http://goo.gl/2675l
Fred is our stalwart from GEM's- Change the Stakes high stakes testing committee.
===============
Mike Klonsky reports:
“There’s a huge disconnect between what the board thinks kids deserve and what parents think kids deserve. Good teaching conditions are good learning conditions. If teachers go on strike, many, many hundreds of parents will be on the picket line with them.” -- Erica Clark,  Parents 4 Teachers
Parents 4 Teachers helped translate our film into Spanish for Chicago parents.

===============
 
Should Arne Duncan be charged with murder in Chicago violence outbreak? Get CSI on the case.

I posted on this a while ago (Is Arne Duncan Guilty of Murder?)

Blogger NYC Eye has such a good post on this I'm reposting it:

Is 38 % Chicago Murder Spike a Duncan Legacy? UPDATE

Activists have long charged that the murder increase in recent years was the direct result of the closing of schools and sending students across gang boundaries because of school closures.

See latest front page article by Monica Davey in the New York Times about the murder rate increase. "Rate of Killings Rises 38 Percent in Chicago in 2012"

Big Education APE reminds us to go back two years in the Chicago Tribune:

[Bill] Gates also invested $90 million in one of the largest implementations of the turnaround strategy—Chicago’s Renaissance 2010. Ren10 gave Chicago public schools CEO Arne Duncan a national name and ticket to Washington; he took along the reform strategy. Shortly after he arrived, studies showing weak results for Ren10 began circulating, but the Chicago Tribune still caused a stir on January 17, 2010, with an article entitled “Daley School Plan Fails to Make Grade.”

Six years after Mayor Richard Daley launched a bold initiative to close down and remake failing schools, Renaissance 2010 has done little to improve the educational performance of the city's school system, according to a Tribune analysis of 2009 state test data.

…The moribund test scores follow other less than enthusiastic findings about Renaissance 2010—that displaced students ended up mostly in other low performing schools and that mass closings led to youth violence as rival gang members ended up in the same classrooms. Together, they suggest the initiative hasn't lived up to its promise by this, its target year.


Read also the blog contribution by Yana Kunichoff at ChicagoNow.com, from March 2, 2012: "Are overlaps between school closings and youth violence a coincidence?"
Just blocks from Carter's Barbershop in North Lawndale where The Chicago Reporter sets up camp for its weekly radio show are two schools on the turnaround and closure list voted on by the Chicago Board of Education last month.

Thomas Herzl Elementary School, at 3711 W. Douglas Blvd., is slated for turnaround next year, and Julia Lathrop Elementary School, at 1440 S. Christiana Ave., will be closed.

These schools aren't too different from most of the 17 schools on Chicago Public School's list of low-performing schools slated for an overhaul: They're heavily low-income, and most students are of one race. At Herzl, for example, 97.9 percent of the students come from households reporting income below the poverty line, and 98.3 percent are black.

But there's another unifying, and telling, factor to all the schools on the closure and turnaround list: They are situated in majority black and brown neighborhoods in the city. Check out this map by Vocalo's Sarah Lu to see the divide. [ed.: click to zoom in.]

Meanwhile, these same neighborhoods see record amounts of youth violence. Twenty-two communities on Chicago's South, Southwest and West sides--where the school turnarounds and closures are based--saw nearly 80 percent of the city's youth homicides, according to a recent Reporter investigation.

Coincidence? Research and reporting on the subject says probably not. Since 2005, thousands of students have been sent to schools outside their neighborhoods following school closures under Renaissance 2010, the education reform program launched by former Mayor Richard M. Daley.
[ed. note: Renaissance 2010 was launched by Chicago Public Schools Chief Executive Officer, Arne Duncan.] 

Charles Barron didn't lose the race, PUBLIC Education lost today

"Mr. Jeffries did indeed push the charter school issue in his first interview with reporters after accepting the Democratic nomination, saying that he hopes to “use the tax code if need be” to support parents’ decision to send their children to religious or other private schools. He also said he supports charter schools."
Only 5% turned out to vote and clearly the numbers show that even if the UFT supported Barron it would not have made a difference. The UFT was "neutral" but there was a semi-glowing article in the NY Teacher favoring Jeffries. But as Mona points out this trend is a hit for public ed and teacher unions.

From Mona Davids:
Jeffries won the election.  Check out the first thing he says and then repeats.  Here's two excerpts:

"Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries trounced Councilman Charles Barron in Tuesday’s Democratic primary for Congress — and promptly said that his main priorities would be helping homeowners at risk of foreclosure and, more controversially, using public money to support parochial and other private schools."

"Mr. Jeffries did indeed push the charter school issue in his first interview with reporters after accepting the Democratic nomination, saying that he hopes to “use the tax code if need be” to support parents’ decision to send their children to religious or other private schools. He also said he supports charter schools."

Charles Barron didn't lose the race.  PUBLIC Education lost today. 

Remember to say a BIG THANK YOU to the Working Families Party, community based organizations, education advocacy groups and all the unions that endorsed Jeffries for their great assistance in bringing vouchers to NYS!

Yes, I'm disgusted.
Read the article below:

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

From MORE: Why we oppose the release of test-based teacher evaluations

In the fall, MORE will be launching a petition campaign calling for the right for teachers to vote on the evaluation deal, and for escalating protests against the testing profiteers.
If you like what you've read,  please consider joining MORE.

Why we oppose the release of test-based teacher evaluations

by morecaucusnyc
 
Please help copy and distribute a hard copy of the this statement to your coworkers

As students and teachers finish up the school year in sweltering heat, legislators in Albany closed their legislative session by passing a new law regarding the public release of teachers' performance evaluations. In reaction to the horrific episode in February, where teachers had erroneous ratings based on flawed data splashed across the pages of the New York City press, legislators extended a protection given to some other civil servants that would prevent work evaluations from being released under the Freedom of Information Act.
Widely heralded as a victory for teachers both by the teacher union leadership and the antiunion press, this legislative move actually helps to usher in a new destructive era of standardized testing for our public school students. First of all, the legislation mandates that school districts must provide "conspicuous notice" to advise parents of their right to know their children's teachers' evaluation results.  While the UFT claims that parents have always had this right, it was a very rare administrator that ever released teacher' performance information to parents.  Now, Mayor Bloomberg has vowed to call every parent in New York City to make them aware that they can access this information.
This will create a poisonous environment within schools, creating suspicion and dividing parents and teachers who are natural allies in the struggle for better schools for our students.

No More Standardized Testing!

Furthermore, the publicity surrounding the deal ignores the overall framework in which it is occurring, where teacher evaluations will soon be based in part on scores students receive on standardized tests. In a year where students have endured hours of expanded "field testing," error-filled exams, and nonsense questions about talking pineapples, we are now moving to an era where teachers livelihoods will be determined by growth and value-added models based on tests, which are unstable metrics that have been shown to vary wildly.
Fortunately, there is a new voice in opposition to the politics of collusion on the part of union leaders that has brought us to this point. The recently formed Movement of Rank and File Educators (morecaucusnyc.org) in New York City is the social justice caucus of the UFT and force advocating within the union opposing "any teacher evaluations based on standardized tests." MORE has supported the boycott of parents of the Pearson field tests and taken a strong position against the evaluation framework agreed to by our union leadership in February, and endorsed the national resolution against standardized testingwhich has been ratified by hundreds of organizations around the country (although not the UFT leadership).
In the fall, MORE will be launching a petition campaign calling for the right for teachers to vote on the evaluation deal, and for escalating protests against the testing profiteers.
If you like what you've read,  please consider joining MORE.

Video of SUNY Charter Giveaway to Eva Moskowitz

Noah Gotbaum asks essential questions. Then note the section as I tried to follow 3 members of the SUNY Charter School Committee into the elevator as they met with Success Academy's Jenny Sedlis who asked for a private meeting, followed by some brief comments by Noah outside.

Newly appointed chairman Joseph Belluck allowed the community to speak at the meeting, apparently something that has not happened before. This was so embarrassing to Eva Moskowitz -- allowing public comment that exposes her scam -- her agent Jenny asked for a private post meeting meeting with Belluck -- maybe to whip him into line for the next time.

He presented himself as a fair guy, but even if he is that won't last long as the rest of the committee is loaded with pro-charter people, as much of SUNY is. 


http://youtu.be/pWsWKaVSnsM





More video later --- Fios is being installed today so I may be down for some hours.

In the meantime, Leonie posted:

Thanks to the hard work of David Bellel, the SUNY Charter webcast from yesterday is now archived.

Sadly, as originally webcast, the sight and sound is not great and it doesn’t start until after Brooke Parker of WAGPOPs has given most of her brilliant presentation. But the best we have so far until Norm posts his video of what transpired yesterday.

part 1: https://vimeo.com/44691118

part 2: https://vimeo.com/44716357

part 3:  https://vimeo.com/44696000

 And this:

See below; the only mention I have found in media today of Eva’s victory yesterday of getting SUNY to approve 6 new schools to add to her empire & to grab even more space from public school buildings in Manhattan and Brooklyn (where even Walcott admits there is no room for them ) while her management fee is raised to 15% -- enabling her to divert even more taxpayer funds to lobbying, PR and her political operations where she can further expand her influence (not to mention her already inflated salary).

Meanwhile SUNY charter committee was told by the head of the SUNY charter institute at the meeting yesterday the fairy tale that they should go along with this, because the schools’ independent board “asked” to be able to give more money to Eva’s CMO, as though the members of the board weren’t handpicked by Eva.  And after all, these schools have a surplus of $24 million – so why not?

Finally, in an interesting sleight of hand, the SUNY charter committee gave over the authority to approve the fee increase to the Charter Institute, because the new chair of the committee, Joe Belluck, said he wasn’t ready to decide on this issue but obviously wasn’t ready to delay the vote while he informed himself on the issue more thoroughly. 

The full SUNY board gives all the authority over charter matters to the SUNY charter committee, which then leaves the decision-making up to the Charter Institute, where the staff continues to behave as they are a wholly-owned subsidiary of Charter Inc. 

And when it comes to the most controversial issue of co-locations, Rossi tells the committee that they have no legal jurisdiction (even though the law says SUNY has to hold hearings on the subject of whether the space is “appropriate”) and that the siting of schools is merely the responsibility of DOE.

Talk about passing the buck!

Hopefully Powell will stay on the story; the NYT badly needs a critical eye on our schools now that Winerip has been taken off education and the other NYT ed reporters are all new to the beat and thus vulnerable to be taken in by DOE and the massively funded and staffed corporate reform PR spin.

Go leave a comment!

In East Harlem School Building, Uneasy Neighbors - NYTimes.com - http://goo.gl/X8udw

 

An Upstairs-Downstairs Divide at a Public School Building in East Harlem

By MICHAEL POWELL
Published: June 25, 2012 6 Comments
Karen Melendez-Hutt once presided over a fine success story. Early last decade, she became principal of Public School 30 in East Harlem, a school on the critical care list.
Scores had spiraled downward. Families felt trapped. The end appeared in sight.
She won grants to pull in counselors, and tutored children at lunchtime, during recess, on Saturdays. Test scores rose. The school earned A’s on progress reports. Then her staff proposed to renovate the playground, a vast expanse of asphalt fissured.
The Manhattan borough president, Scott M. Stringer, gave $180,000 in 2010 for the renovation.
“I called the Department of Education and said: ‘Isn’t this great? We got this money!’ ” she recalled.
An official cut her off: “There’s a lot more money than that coming,” he said. “But Eva Moskowitz has got it.”
In retrospect, this was the moment the center of power — and money — began to shift decisively in this public school building.
Eva S. Moskowitz, a former city councilwoman, is chief executive of Success Academy Charter Schools. One of her handsomely financed schools, Harlem Success Academy 2 Charter School, occupied the upper floor of the same building as P.S. 30. Another school, devoted to students with disabilities, also inhabits this building on East 128th Street.
Ms. Moskowitz, as Type A and politically connected as any charter operator in the city, had convinced the City Council to allocate $875,000 to renovate the same playground. Although the Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, says this money was intended for the playground for all three schools, Harlem Success Academy 2 quickly took ownership.
“They made it clear they’d already hired an architect and they’d plan it,” Ms. Melendez-Hutt recalls. “I said, ‘No, no, no, for once you have to learn to play with others.’ ”
Ms. Moskowitz is a brigadier in the charter school wars that could define the next mayoral election. Armies mass on either side. The teachers’ union, parent groups and the organization New York Communities for Change oppose charter expansion. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has sent a trusted aide, Micah C. Lasher, to work with the hedge-fund-backed group StudentsFirstNY to push expansion.
Ms. Moskowitz embraces life in wartime. She yearns not only to compete, but also to drive the teachers’ union and some public schools into the East River. In e-mails several years ago to the chancellor at the time, Joel I. Klein, obtained by the columnist Juan Gonzalez of The Daily News, Ms. Moskowitz made clear her views. “We need,” she wrote, “to quickly and decisively distinguish the good guys from the bad.”
To this end, she has formed a network of charters that, with strict discipline and unrelenting emphasis on high test scores, have posted impressive results.
On Monday, the trustees of the State University of New York — which oversees charter schools — gave Ms. Moskowitz permission to open six new schools. And the trustees increased her network management fee to 15 percent, from 10 percent, which will infuse her quickly expanding empire with millions of dollars.
Her pell-mell success exacts a toll. Teachers’ hours are brutal, from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., with evenings devoted to marking homework. Teacher turnover at Harlem Success Academy 2 approached 40 percent last year. Ms. Moskowitz drives herself no less manically. She lists her salary as $379,478 and pegs her typical workweek at 70 hours.
Say this for Ms. Moskowitz: Many students in poor neighborhoods have for years lacked quality schools; charters perhaps offer useful competition.
She glories in comparing her schools with hapless public school cousins. “The nice thing about co-location is that you can put the schools under a microscope,” she says.
Ms. Melendez-Hutt retired two years ago, and P.S. 30 has gone into a slide. It received a D grade last year, a fact that Ms. Moskowitz’s staff noted in e-mails and phone calls. The staff also sent a comparison of test scores, and it contrasted Success Academy’s wood cubbies and carpeted classrooms with the dingier halls of the neighbor.
In essence, I had an immersion in the same hard sell parents are given. Only nuance was missing. P.S. 30 students are distinctly poorer, and a far higher proportion receive special education. Its veteran staff members themselves outfitted a fine library with sofas and chairs.
Then there’s that playground. A handsome soccer field with artificial turf dominates the yard, as Ms. Moskowitz desired. P.S. 30 obtained one of its four desired basketball courts, which occupies a corner near the door.
“It was a very long, drawn-out process,” Ms. Moskowitz said. “It’s all about the art of compromise.”
No doubt.
E-mail: powellm@nytimes.com
Twitter: @powellnyt

This Summer: Join GEM's Change the Stakes Committee and Fight High Stakes Testing

Change the Stakes was one of principal organizers of Pearson Protest
NEXT MEETING JULY 13:
 
From GEM parent activist Janine Sopp:


You may not know about Change the Stakes, a committee of GEM working to end the devastating use of high stakes testing.  We have been busy for almost a year now and have felt as though we are part of the movement that is shifting the dialog, even if in small ways, around issues of testing.  We are certainly part of a national movement.
 
Please visit our website, sign our petition, "Like" us on Facebook and join our open forum.

If you support a parent's right to opt out of testing, please sign and share this link to the petition demanding a non punitive opt out program in NY:


Visit our facebook page and help spread the word, post relevant articles and comment if you wish:

We encourage you to spread the word about all of the above and consider joining us at
our next CTS meeting on July 13!  We look forward to expanding our outreach as we
begin organizing for the 2012-2013 school year ahead.

Have a wonderful summer,

Janine & Kya
CTS Campaign, GEM

Evan and Sydney Invite You - Win a Raffle Too


Even the offer of free drinks, appetizers, and mini-cupcakes by Baked by Melissa atop a rooftop hotel is not enough. Well, the E4E crew is escalating the prizes with bowling raffles and even Five Napkin Burger, which may be enough to get me to sign the pledge to give away all teacher rights.

I love the "teacher voice" part --- as long as you don't disagree with E4E. I might even make it over there so Evan and Sydney can call hotel security to throw me out. Or maybe send in my bunch of spies to start a food fight.

I met a teacher the other day who used to baby sit for Sydney. I won't share what I suggested she should have done. (Hint: it involves a plastic bag.)
I'm signing the E4E for the chance to win one  one of these babies




Dear ------
Celebrate this year's successes with fellow teachers while enjoying beautiful summer weather, stunning views, complimentary drinks and appetizers, and mini-cupcakes by Baked by Melissa.

We are also delighted to give you the chance to win awesome raffle prizes, courtesy of  local businesses that also want to show their appreciation for teachers. Featured raffle prices include gift certificates from:
  • Barnes and Noble
  • Van Leeuwen Ice Cream
  • Five Napkin Burger
  • Jimmy's No. 43
  • Yoga Vida
  • Bowlmor Lanes
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
3:00-6:00 p.m.
Hotel Chantelle
92 Ludlow Street, New York, NY

Accessible via F, J, M, Z trains

Make sure to invite your friends and colleagues to join you by forwarding them this e-mail - the more the merrier! We hope to see you there!
All our best,

Evan Stone & Sydney Morris
Co-Founders and Co-Chief Executive Officers
Educators 4 Excellence

Eva Gets Her Vig

Eva Moskowitz, who runs Harlem Success Academy, will get extra $650 per-student fee. Committee Chairman Joseph Belluck said a vote was not needed because SUNY trustees had recently authorized the staff of its Charter Schools Institute to approve any management fee increases for charter schools.  --- Daily News
Charter school fees get pricier
Moskowitz gets $650-per-pupil fee
By Glenn Blain AND Juan Gonzalez / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, June 25, 2012, 10:17 PM

Eva Moskowitz, who runs Harlem Success Academy, will get extra $650 per-student fee.

STATE UNIVERSITY of New York officials on Monday granted a hefty fee increase to the charter school company run by former City Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz.

The SUNY Board’s Charter Schools Committee decided — without a vote — to allow Harlem Success Academy Charter Schools to increase its per-pupil fee from $1,350 to $2,000 to run charter schools in Harlem, the Bronx and Brooklyn.

Committee Chairman Joseph Belluck said a vote was not needed because SUNY trustees had recently authorized the staff of its Charter Schools Institute to approve any management fee increases for charter schools.

The fee increase will not cost taxpayers additional money, but rather give Moskowitz’s company a larger share of the state dollars already headed to the schools.

Cynthia Proctor, a spokeswoman for the Charter Schools Institute, said the request was approved after a “rigorous” review determined it would not harm the fiscal health of the schools.

Moskowitz has argued her network was running a financial “shortfall” and needed the fee increase to maintain its high level of service.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/charter-school-fees-pricier-article-1.1102239#ixzz1yroE4aXP

Please sign and share far and wide!!

"NYS Governor Andrew Cuomo; SUNY Board of Trustees, NYS Board of Regents: Stop catering to Charter Schools and harming public school children.."

<https://www.change.org/petitions/nys-governor-andrew-cuomo-suny-board-of-trustees-nys-board-of-regents-stop-catering-to-charter-schools-and-harming-public-school-children>

Here are some pics I took. Video later.



The youngest protestor - Williamsburg/Greenpoint Parents for Public Ed









Success gets to meet privately with most of committee after meeting - video later

Citizen Charter supporter slugs

More slugs


Monday, June 25, 2012

The NY Times Wants to Build a Better Teacher

Check the back page of the main section of today's NY Times. Of course, the problem with education is that we need to build better teachers because the ones we have are doing such a lousy job. The back page lists lots of ed deformers (Kristof, Brooks, Kenny) and a few true reformers. Delve into the panels and we do find Monty Neill and semi-reformer Pedro Noguera. I would love to get to ask Kenny about her teacher turnover and student attrition rates. http://nytschoolsfortomorrow.com/agenda.php

Mike Klonsky: How Obama Democrats Are Selling Out Chicago Teachers

Klonsky and more on Chicago teachers:

Trib writers shine another light on Rahm's anti-union attack ads

AKPD's John Kupper
Thanks to  reporters Jeff Coen and Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah for their excellent piece in Today's Trib, "Emanuel allies press attack in teachers union battle." It confirms everything I wrote Monday about David Axelrod's old firm AKPD being the architect of the lying anti-union ad campaign now being played on local radio in Chicago.

According to the Trib report, the big money behind the attacks on Chicago teachers and their union is the group Democrats For Education Reform (DFER), run by NewYork hedge-funders Whitney Tilson and Ravenel Boykin Curry IV. The group continues to be a big player in the Obama election campaign and is the main force for school privatization, vouchers and privately-run charter schools, within the Democratic Party. They are also major supporters of Rahm's longer-school-day-with-no-pay-for-teachers initiative

More importantly, the Trib report shows that despite denials and evasions, the mayor has knowingly and unabashedly supported the anti-union campaign which is being run by his own political operatives like AKPD's John Kupper. Kupper admits his firm is on retainer with Emanuel's political organization, and state records show The Chicago Committee, one of Emanuel's campaign fundraising organizations, paid Axelrod's old firm more than $21,000 in the first quarter of 2012 for "professional services/consulting."

As for DFER:  
Officials at Democrats for Education Reform said the group's Illinois state director, Rebeca Nieves Huffman, also has not talked to Emanuel about the ads and "doesn't coordinate with him." In May the mayor was photographed with Huffman at a school reform summit in California, but Huffman spokeswoman Megan Jacobs characterized that as a chance encounter.
The two Trib reporters also shine a light on Emanuel political operative Greg Goldner (behind Rahm's use of paid protesters) and billionaire backers Penny Pritzker and Bruce Rauner.
Emanuel's emphasis on schools fits with the long-held agenda of a number of his wealthiest political supporters. They include Penny Pritzker, now a member of the Board of Education, and venture capitalist Bruce Rauner, whose wife, Diana, an early education expert, served on Emanuel's transition team.

Rauner was instrumental in bringing the reform group Stand for Children to Illinois. That organization helped pass the law setting a higher bar for a teachers' strike and also has criticized the teachers union for taking the strike authorization vote.
Good going Jeff and Noreen.

Also read:

A Future for Teachers Unions, But Only with a Fight

and

Chicago: Ghosts of PATCO and the Coming Battle for Teachers

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/06/18

 

Unions Celebrate a "Win"?

to celebrate this as a win, is akin to the South declaring a victory during a skirmish in the closing days of the Civil War. This isn’t a win, it’s a tourniquet. It may stop the bleeding temporarily, but once gangrene sets in we’re doomed.

This blog by Opine I will is worth cross posting because it addresses my favorite topic, the actions of our union leaders. The link is: http://rlratto.wordpress.com/2012/06/24/another-nice-mess-youve-got-us-into/.

I hope this guy teaches in NYC and joins up with MORE. Look at the list of "wins."

Also see James Eterno at ICE: TEACHER RATING LAW LOOKS LIKE ANOTHER EMPTY UFT VICTORY


Another nice mess you’ve got us into..

Oliver Hardy is well know for looking at Stan Laurel, who appears clueless, and with a frustrated tone exclaims, “another nice mess you got us  into!”
Nothing could be more fitting, than Ollie’s words when I look at the predicament  teachers all across New York State are in right now.
This past week the following  statement of American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten following passage of the teacher privacy bill by both houses of the New York Legislature had heads spinning. She stated,
 New York State United Teachers President Richard C. Iannuzzi said,
Who are they kidding?? Teacher’s all across the state are suppose to celebrate legislation that allow, evaluations based on junk science, and may determine their future livelihoods, to be released to parents as a good thing?
Let’s keep in mind, this legislation was quickly negotiated to fix a much greater threat. The courts already declared that these evaluations can be released to the media, and something needed to be done. So in that light, it could have been much worse. But to celebrate this as a win, is akin to the South declaring a victory during a skirmish in the closing days of the Civil War. This isn’t a win, it’s a tourniquet. It may stop the bleeding temporarily, but once gangrene sets in we’re doomed.
 The way I look at it, our unions (we) negotiated ourselves into this nice mess.We negotiated a deal that allowed teachers to be evaluated using junk science.
Even though there is no evidence that supports Value Added Measures as a means of calculating teacher effectiveness,  we agreed to it.
  • We negotiated rubrics that will be used in teacher evaluations, yet many of these rubrics are untested.
  • We agreed to test and re-test models to measure our own effectiveness.
  • We stood by, while our students were subjected to 90 hours of testing.
  • We’re embracing the Common Core Standards as a means to magically make our students college and career ready.
  • We dare not exclaim Race to the Top, is really a race to nowhere, because politically we must remain loyal until November.
  • We stand by while charters eat away at public education, and even at times support our own charter schools.
So here we are, standing arm in arm with Governor Cuomo, praising his acumen in negotiating this deal. Forgetting that his tax cap policies have caused thousand of teachers all across the state to lose their jobs. Forgetting that his education commissioner is a pro charter advocate. Forgetting that his flawed teacher evaluation plan is nothing more than an attempt to circumvent tenure. Here we are standing there.
Yeah, another nice mess you got us into!

Crimes and Misdemeanors: SUNY Board Expected to Give Eva Moskowitz Her 50% Increase in Vigorish in Vote Today

Vigorish, or simply the vig, also known as juice, the cut or the take, is the amount charged by a bookmaker, or bookie, for his services. In the United States it also means the interest on a shark's loan. The term is Yiddish slang originating from the Russian word for winnings, выигрыш vyigrysh.[1] Bookmakers use this practice to make money on their wagers regardless of the outcome. -- Wikkipedia
[Success Academy Charter] spent"...more than $3.4 million spent on marketing and drumming up huge numbers of application forms - in just one year."

"On its annual tax forms, (Success) has continually reported huge year-end surpluses for both itself and its individual schools. Those combined surpluses currently stand at more $23.5 million" ------Juan Gonzalez, Daily News

In case you missed my fictional blog from yesterday, Eva Moskowitz Deals With Armageddon, what you read below is NOT fiction.


It's all about children/students/scholars first, except when it comes to getting your vig. I'm going to try to make the press conference. My theory is that the more they take the more people will get riled up. So let the criminals at the SUNY charter board allow Eva to get her 15%. Note the last item in Juan Gonzalez' column today:


As for the Success Academy's "extraordinary level of student achievement," that will be the subject of a future column.
Yeah, yeah, yeah!
Ravitch is also blogging about this:
How Charter Schools Get a Bad Reputation
*MEDIA ADVISORY FOR MONDAY JUNE 25*


PARENTS, ADVOCATES TO PROTEST SUNY PLAN TO GIVE EVA MOSKOWITZ MILLIONS IN EXTRA FEES, EXPAND HER AND HER HUSBAND’S CHARTER NETWORKS

Urge SUNY and Governor Cuomo to Put the Millions She Wants Into Public Schools to Benefit ALL Kids

WHO: Parents, Community Members, Elected Officials, Activists from New York Communities for Change, Parents Leaders for Upper East Side Schools (PLUS)

WHAT: Rally and press conference outside SUNY’s Midtown building prior to rubber stamp SUNY vote that will give Moskowitz a 50% increase in management fees to cover her charter school network’s claimed annual “deficit” – even though the same network shows a surplus of $24 million and growing.

WHERE: SUNY College of Optometry. 33 W. 42nd St., between 5th and 6th avenues.

WHEN: 1 p.m. for rally and press conference. SUNY Board vote scheduled for 2 p.m.

WHY:  The additional millions in tax dollars Eva Moskowitz will get from raising her management fees will be siphoned directly from students and classroom budgets.  The increased fees will continue instead to pay Moskowitz and her team Wall Street level salaries, to pad her growing endowment/surplus, and to pay lobbyists and marketing consultants millions to denigrate our public schools as “failures” in order to construct demand and generate enough applications needed to feed the Success Charter corporation.  These tax dollars could be constructively used instead to provide real choice for all parents by investing in our public schools and ensuring that the 96% of students in those public schools have the same resources that Success Academies and most charters already have, i.e. smart boards in every room, useable science labs, renovated and accessible bathrooms, updated text books, adequate funding for special needs students, and smaller class sizes. 
 
Join parents today at press conference, protest against SUNY's vote to raise Eva's fees and use funds instead for our public schools. 33 w 42nd Press conference at 1; vote at 2. 

noah
noah e gotbaum
twitter: @noahegotbaum


Juan Gonzales in the Daily News
6.25.2012
Even in public education, the rich keep getting richer.
 
That's the message the trustees of the State University of New York will send Monday when they vote to approve a huge 50% increase in the per-pupil management fee of one of the city's wealthiest, biggest-spending and most controversial charter school operators.

The Success Academy Charter Schools Inc., run by former City Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz, applied in April for an increase from $1,350 to $2,000 in the annual per student payment it receives from the state to run 10 of its charter schools.

SUNY postponed the vote following a public outcry over the agency's failure to disclose any details beforehand.

Not until Friday morning did the agency finally release some documents to justify the increase.

Among them is a May 22 letter from Moskowitz that claims her network has been heavily subsidizing "shortfalls" in its management costs for years through outside donations and grants.

Those high costs have been a result, Moskowitz said, of a "quality and intensity of services that is far higher than nearly any other (charter operator) in New York City," yet she has continued to augment her services despite insufficient fees from the schools.

But with the "deficit ... increasing every year," Moskowitz says, "the current situation is simply unsustainable." In 2010-11 alone, she states, her network's "shortfall" reached $4.7 million.

This will all come as a huge surprise to anyone who has bothered to examine Success Academy's financial reports or who has witnessed firsthand its almost limitless spending .
The Success Network, in fact, is a fund-raising colossus, having received $28 million from dozens of foundations and wealthy investors the past six years, and millions more in state and federal grants.

On its annual tax forms, it has continually reported huge year-end surpluses for both itself and its individual schools. Those combined surpluses currently stand at more $23.5 million.
Hardly the picture of financial woe.

Last year alone, the network spent an astounding $883,119 on "student recruitment" - much of it for glossy flyers mailed to hundreds of thousands of parents; bus stop and Internet ads and an army of paid recruiters to go door-to-door soliciting student applications.
Even other charter schools rarely spend more than a few thousand dollars on student recruitment.

Meanwhile, Moskowitz's network spent another $1.3 million on what it described as "network events and community outreach."

It paid $243,150 to SKD Knickerbocker, a high-powered public relations firm, to supplement its own in-house press people, and another $129,000 to a Washington consulting firm founded by President Obama's chief strategist David Axelrod.

But that wasn't all that Success Academy spent on marketing itself.

The network's first seven schools incurred an additional $912,000 "student recruitment" expenditure last year, most of it going to big advertising and branding companies.

That's comes to more than $3.4 million spent on marketing and drumming up huge numbers of application forms - in just one year.

It is perhaps the most intense campaign to sell a group of charter schools in the history of education.

"Our results prove we are spending resources effectively," Moskowitz said. "With fewer taxpayer dollars than district schools, we have an extraordinary level of student achievement, which is why we have 13,000 applicants this year."

Which, of course, ignores the fact there is no need to spend so many millions of dollars to recruit 10 times more applicants than you can possibly handle.

As for the Success Academy's "extraordinary level of student achievement," that will be the subject of a future column.

For now, despite efforts from parent groups led by New York Communities for Change, SUNY's bureaucrats seems poised to give Moskowitz exactly what she wants - a big fee increase to overcome her "unsustainable shortfall."
Author:
Juan Gonzalez

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Eva Moskowitz Deals With Armageddon

Dear Mike and Dennis,

As you may be aware, the world will be coming to an end in 3 weeks and I am particularly perturbed at your failure to address some important concerns. Obviously my intention to open 40 Success charter schools is in some danger.

But all is not lost if we move fast. Therefore I am calling on the evacuation of as many public schools as feasible and the turning over of the buildings to me within 24 hours so my team can get moving offering parents the choice they have been denied by the actions of the UFT.

We have to look at this as a much greater opportunity than Hurricane Katrina offered in New Orleans to remake the schools in our image. But we only have 3 weeks to do it so let's get moving.

I can assure you that every single Success Academy school will remain open to the very last minute. Between you and me, I am expecting to remain open beyond the day of destruction due to divine intervention, at which point I expect to finally become the Mayor of NYC, which I have long dreamed of.

Looking forward to our collaboration.

Eva

PS: I already have heard from Randi Weingarten who is eager to work with me on this project. She said she would give it her highest priority.


Saturday, June 23, 2012

Crimes Have Been Committed Against Children and Teachers, Sellout Chapter Leader Richard Candia Ran With New Action in 2010 Election

Apologies to Unity Caucus since I assumed Candia was associated -- though of course there is little difference between New Action and Unity.
Who was responsible for making the call to remove me and deprive my 180 students from an excellent education? All those responsible should be held accountable. They should actually be arrested since they robbed the young minds of career oriented knowledge. The parents should also file a class action law suit against those who made the false allegations against me: Principal Hill, Assistant Principal Aguire and Union Leader Richard Candia. They should be held accountable to NYC Charter section 1116 on fraud and State Commissioner Regulation part 83 ----

Crimes have been committed - http://protectportelos.wordpress.com/

Yes, you heard correctly. Francesco Portelos' chapter leader joined the principal in making charges that led to Portelos being place in the rubber room. Deemed a threat for numerous reasons, but especially in that he would be running against Candia for chapter leader, the children of IS 49 SI have been deprived of services for months because of the political vendetta. Where are the "concerned" student first people on this case? Where is the press?
How sweet that Portelos won the election from the rubber room, a clear indictment by the staff of the criminal principal, the criminal network that supports her and the criminals at Tweed that support the entire structure.

Let's hope parents will take some action against all of them.

In the meantime, you can view Linda Hill's time cards at



and audit at
 
Hill remains in the school and Portelos in the rubber room.
 
Afterburn:
Over the years I got to know the robotics coach who preceded Portelos at IS 49. A quiet and dignified math teacher who did wonderful work with her kids, she came under assault from Hill and eventually retired before she wanted to. Another crime against Linda Hill.


Friday, June 22, 2012

Stalker to Run Harlem Charter School Parents PAC


“If I cheat on my wife, it is not a reason for her to divorce me…if a wife cheats on her husband, she would be a whore.” –Pierre-Lopez


Who is the whore here?

Harlem Charter School Parents PAC

PRESS RELEASE

Harlem Charter School Parents PAC To Raise $250,000 To Support Political Candidates

Visit: hcsppac.org

For More Information, Contact:
Thomas Lopez-Pierre
Treasurer
Harlem Charter School Parents PAC (HCSP-PAC)
646-363-9047
info@hcsppac.org
hcsppac.org

Here are a few comments and info on Lopez-Pierre

It's heartening to know that this PAC is reaching out to typical Harlem parents, the 25 or so who will give $10,000 each. Weren't charter schools created for them?
Diane R

While they are looking for 25 contributions of $10k each, the money will come from a “powerful coalition…of Wall Street Bankers to Charter School Parents.”  Anyone wish to wager how many of the donors will actually be charter parents versus the usual suspects throwing their fiscal weight around to tell the rest of us how to educate our kids; those 96% attending public schools versus the 4% in charters?
Noah
--------------------
Before you all get carried away by this nonsense, take a look at the New York Times article on this piece of  toxic pond scum named Thomas Lopez-Pierre:
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/21/nyregion/only-the-gorgeous-and-smart-club-s-rules-amplify-buzz-on-race-and-relationships.html>
If you can't stomach the entire piece,  I will reprint its last paragraph directly quoting him:
''I didn't marry my wife because she was a kind, sensitive woman,'' he said. ''I married her because she is a complete package. I married her because she takes her butt to the gym, and she keeps it tight for me. I want it all, and I got it all. There are men who want the same.''
Seems like my kind of guy:D. Yup, he and Eva (or maybe just her hedgehogs?) sound like a match made in (fictional) heaven.

Jim's post about Thomas Lopez-Pierre prompted  me to .... my good friend Google.  The array of posts are dizzying.  In second place, already, is Jim's post.   In first place ... a notice about Mr. Lopez-Pierre's 2009 arrest for stalking.  Not for stalking a woman, apparently, but for what appears to be "real estate" stalking.  (Real estate brokering apparently being his main business.)  As I said... dizzying.  Further on is much hue and cry over The Harlem Club.  Each time he defends his positions on it, he only seems to justify the uproar.  E.G., from --




 "Lopez-Pierre went on to argue that a partner indicates an equal. While I could not catch everything he said (which is why I can’t quote this part), he stated that having an equal or a partner basically means he has to respect the time of his partner, which would mean he would need to do things to help out like make dinner, or clean the house, which is something he refuses to do. Ergo, he wants a wife – not a partner. Lopez-Pierre talks about his relationship with his wife as an example. It is interesting to see where he draws the distinction – a partner is someone you have to pay attention to, a wife is a person who accommodates her man. "

"Lopez-Pierre also gave his two cents, saying that while he wants his wife to work outside the home, it should be obvious where her priorities lie."

“If I cheat on my wife, it is not a reason for her to divorce me…if a wife cheats on her husband, she would be a whore.” –Pierre-Lopez 

I certainly hope this man isn't actually planning to start his own charter school once he sees how quickly the money rolls in at the very mention of the term!

Only the Gorgeous and Smart; Club's Rules Amplify Buzz on Race and Relationships

By SHERRI DAY
Published: April 21, 2004

Thomas Lopez-Pierre was looking for just the right men for the Harlem Club, a private social club for African-Americans and Latinos that he was forming in Manhattan.

For $5,000, mid-career professional men could become charter members; $2,500 would make them general members. But this club did not want just any moneyed men. Rap stars, Hollywood glitterati and professional athletes -- what Mr. Lopez-Pierre labels the ''ghetto-fabulous crowd'' -- would not be welcome.
Women could join the Harlem Club, too. But only as associate members. And they had to be 35 or younger, unmarried, childless, college educated and willing to submit a head-to-toe photograph, to prevent unattractive women from making the cut.
And to ensure that there would be a steady stream of fresh pretties at the club, Mr. Lopez-Pierre planned to rotate 20 percent of the associate members, who pay no dues, every three months. The goal, he said, was to present members with undeniable marriage material.
''When people think of the Harlem Club, I want them to think beautiful, intelligent, highly successful women of color,'' said Mr. Lopez-Pierre, the public face for the club's 15 charter members, men who do not want their identities known for fear of public backlash...